The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-01-18

| Queensbury, who was q hereditary
| law-maker. In the case we are con-
sidering, however, the only motive is
inexpressibly contemplate. 1t is the
wish to paint the lily, to gid the gold.
| The man who has one yacht would have
| two yachts. His dinner service is of
Sevres, but be would have another of
| Dresden. His horse is the fleetest of
horses, but he would have pair. He
has fresh FIGS daily from his green
house, but he would have fresh pome-
granatas also. His house is costly and
beautiful, but he would rival the AL
hambra. His wife's diamond tiara
dazzles every beholder, but she must
add to it a necklace of black pearls.
These are his aims. and for these he
dishonors his name, blows out his
brains, and wounds irremediably the
hearts that fondly love him.
His crime is the result of an undue
exaltation of wealth, and such eXalta-
ton is the bane and peril of American
society. To penetrate the charmed
pale of society" is the instinct of
wealth. and in country where there is
no social hierarchy, wealth can have
and does have its way. 1t is one adj
vantage of q society of class that wealth
can not buy its way beyond its caste.
III. r. H., indeed, may cOndescend to
eat your exquisite dinners and ad-
mire your precious collection, but you
are not therefore admitted dd
eundem. The blue blood, whatever
that sacred fluid may be. flows in the
veins of yonder beldam, shriveled in
body and purse, and she instinctively
takes naughty precedence of the GEM
crusted beauty who flashes with new
splendor upon the court. But the
beauty knows and the husband knows,
and they both know that everybody
else knows. that all the gems of Col
conda can not be transmitted into one
drop of that mystic blood.
But in . country where YOU can break
into the sacred pale with bar of gold,
everybody knows that the pit out of
which social distinction is digged is
gold mine. To scale society is only to
climb golden stair. The more gold
the more distinction. Not rank for
public service, cOrOnet or Westmin-
ster Abbey, not the noble tradition OF
a LONG line of ancestors whispering
sternIy nO6leSSe Obiige. but mere pro-
fuse and splendid expenditure. will
open the awful gates anil seat you at
the highest table. And il is the plain
moral of all the recent betrayal of
trust. the meme, meme, flashing upon
the wall of the banqueting chamber,
that while we accept money "a the
credential and passport. instead of
actual service. actual accomplishment
and distinction. wa put a premium
upon dishonesty and robbery.
This tendency i encouraged by moth
inc more than by the reports in the
newspapers of the trivial details of the
lives of rich people. The dinners and
the drives of Midas are of as much in
trinsic public interest when he earns
ten dollars week rs when his income
is ten thousand dollars day. The
only reason that they are recorded in
the latter event il that his income Is inn
mense. This casts prOdigiOuS CLAM
our upon the mere fact of wealth. and
greatly strengthens the temptation to
obtain il at any cost. The daily an
nouncement that Mr.. and Mrs. BOnan-
"a Yesterday entertained Mr.. and Mrs.
Gulch at dinner is not merely luGic-
rous imitation of the foreign gazette of
a recognized social hierarchy, but it is
a stimulant TO get within the circle the
incidents of whose social intercourse
are recorded like those of royalty or of
aristocracy. The key to that circle is
a key of gold, and the stimulant incites
the legion who crave that nOtoriety
more than any other prize to get the
gold key-honestly if they can. but
quickly at all events. George William
Curtis, ia HGTper's Magazine.